Transforming Setbacks into Purpose: The Journey of Ignatius

Ignatius was born into a family of minor nobility, and he was relatively affluent and so he became a soldier and had dreams of a successful light in the court, glamorous military victories, and romantic experiences with women. But he ran into a trouble when he was able to lead a troop, he was trying to defend a fortress and they were overwhelmed. [00:05:02]

He was a humiliating loser and then worse, a cannonball injured his leg, and he was vain enough it did not look good in the very tight-fitting leggings of that day so he tried to have it reset by a surgeon and it ended up looking worse. It was basically 16th century cosmetic surgery. [00:05:28]

Very often when we think about journeys of faith, we think about before and after stories where there's a crisis and he certainly had one of those, a big setback, and then the after is just one experience of clarity and spiritual victory after another. It was not that way for Ignatius at all. [00:06:02]

His next decision was that he would make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and live a life of self-imposed deprivations and suffering like the great saints did, and his family begged him not to do that but he did. It took him 18 months to get to Jerusalem. [00:06:22]

He let his hair grow, he used to be so vain that he would have cosmetic surgery on his legs. Now he went to the other extreme, let his fingernails grow like Howard Hughes and the corkscrews made such a nuisance of himself. It took him 18 months to get to Jerusalem and after three weeks they deported him. [00:06:34]

He goes to a place called Manresa, a little town in Spain, expected to only be there for a few days and he encounters God there, and what happens transforms his life. He comes to a very deep understanding that God exists and that God is calling him to do something with his life. [00:07:30]

Though his personal pilgrimage continued, his self-punishment stopped. I was thinking if you have gone through a difficult time, it's an important distinction to make between I'm on pilgrimage, but I'm not going to be doing self-punishment. [00:08:02]

He pulls a little group of people together with him, and as their mutual friendship developed, they banded together in a loose association to help souls. What does that mean? What were their occupations? What were their products? They couldn't have answered those questions with much precision. [00:08:52]

They began to sense a calling to education. In 10 years they had founded 30 colleges. By 1800 or so there were 700 secondary schools and universities that were founded by the Jesuits. Something like 20% of all Europeans that received the classical education were receiving it from them. [00:09:55]

Reflect on where's their pain in your life and how will you steward it. The most important verses for me over these last few years has been Genesis chapter 50 verse 19, where Joseph who also knew challenge and setback in heartbreak said to his brothers, don't live in despair, don't punish yourselves any longer. [00:10:34]

What you intended for harm God used for good. Gave a good friend where we had a conversation the other night, very gifted person but his pain has maybe even exceeded his gifts and the question that we talked about is how will we steward our pain. [00:10:54]

Where's God meeting you in the midst of that difficulty, that setback precisely like he did with Ignatius and that cannonball and that injury and then long periods of years where he felt frustrated, and yet ultimately God was leading him through that to find a little community that would seek to help souls. [00:11:13]